Senate debates

Monday, 5 September 2022

Regulations and Determinations

Code for the Tendering and Performance of Building Work Amendment Instrument 2022; Disallowance

7:23 pm

Photo of Jacqui LambieJacqui Lambie (Tasmania, Jacqui Lambie Network) Share this | Hansard source

It is no secret that I'm not a fan of the CFMEU. Certainly, I'm talking about the conduct of the top echelon of it. As a matter of fact, if I had a dollar for every hour I have spent on those five letters—C-F-M-E-U—whilst I've been up here the last eight years, I can tell you I would be retired, sitting in the Bahamas drinking cocktails because I would be so rich. There are some really bad apples in that union, and everybody in here—Labor included—you know it. You absolutely know it. You should be ashamed of yourselves.

When we've got the union barging into worksites and bullying workers to sign on, we've got a problem. They are using standover tactics. They are standover men. The Labor Party knows it. We've been able to control it a little bit and put a choker chain on them for the last five or six years, and it has been a pleasant experience. But I'll tell you what, it's open slather after today. They'll be like an army marching on—with really bad leadership, because that hasn't changed. Culture doesn't change unless you change the leadership.

The CFMMEU squeeze employers who don't play by their rules. They force businesses to shut down. They physically and verbally threaten workers on sites. The CFMMEU officials were calling female construction workers 'bimbos', 'daddy's girls'—we've heard the worst of the worst, and I won't go over it. They told workers at Woolies that the union will make their lives hard. Federal Court judges have told the union that the time for their rule-breaking had well and truly passed, but here we go again, back around in the same circle. But you know what? The union don't see it that way because they keep on doing what they're doing. It's only going to get worse. We're going back to the good old days—here we go again.

This is what we're dealing with in the construction industry at the moment, and it's the last thing that we need. We need tradies and their bosses to work well together to have safe worksites. We've got to be building the apartments and the houses we need to get Australians into affordable housing. Do you know what tradies deserve? They deserve to go to work without being called homophobic slurs. They deserve to go to work without being harassed. They deserve a safe workplace. What do you know? The CFMMEU and the unions are supposed to supply that, and they're part of the problem. We have work to do in the construction industry. We should not be comfortable with what's going on. We should be doing better for the tradies and people they work for.

I want to be very clear here. All of this doesn't mean that I think the ABCC is great. It doesn't mean I wouldn't vote to replace the ABCC with something else, or wind it back where it needs to be wound back—'where it needs to be wound back' are the ultimate words here. I do not like the leadership of the CFMMEU. I do not like their conduct. It leaves a lot to be questioned, right across society. But that doesn't mean I think the ABCC is a good body. The thing that bothers me so much about what's going on in here tonight is the way Labor have gone about this—it is disgraceful. This whole 'transparency, new government' hoo-ha didn't take long—she's all off the table. The government have purposely gone behind our backs to gut the regulator, a regulator their union donors don't like. How about that? Here come those donations again. Listen—it feels like the cavalry is coming into the Senate! That's what those donations feel like. It's amazing what years of political cash can do, what influence it buys you. It sure as hell does not buy you safety on a construction site—not when the bullies are on the loose.

You've found a way to kill the regulator without having to win majority support from the Senate. You should never have done that—it's not right, and you know that. It is shameful. If you wanted to cut the legs out from under the ABCC, you should have put that to us fairly. If there's a problem with the ABCC we should have fought it out on the floor. But no, you didn't want to do that. You should have been able to defend yourselves, be brave, stand up and show some spine. Tell us why you believe the ABCC should be here. Even now, I see you're not full of speakers over there. You're not exactly out there guarding them with everything you've got. How about that? I wouldn't expect anything less from you people over there at the moment.

To sneak around and find ways to get the CFMMEU what they want without even putting it to the Senate—that's where we're at already. We're in only the first week of September and that's where we're at with the Labor Party—or is it called the CFMMEU Party? To do it without even getting majority support is just absolute filth. That's dirty political tactics. The worst part is that you're doing it for yourselves, for your election campaigns and for your future donations. You're a piggy bank for the CFMMEU. That is what you are. I honestly thought Labor would have been better than this, but here we go! Here's the true red coming out in its full colours! You know what, I'm not just disappointed; I'm mad and I'm disappointed. I'm both of those things.

I'm surprised at you, Minister Burke. It blows me away. I'm even more surprised at you, Minister Dreyfus. You surprised me more than anyone. You've let the CFMMEU walk all over the top of you. In opposition, here you were, telling us how much you cared about accountability and telling us all about proper process and about putting things through parliament the way they should be. Now you're in government, you do this.

You might as well be on monkey bars because the backflips are starting already. Here we go! Three months in and we're on. It's full go in the playground. Go those monkey bars! You find a way to strip funding and power from a regulator you don't like—a regulator your donors do not like—and you do it without even putting it to us here in the Senate. How is that good for trust? How does that show the Australian people that you take them seriously? The Senate deserves better than this. The Australian people deserve better than this.

I called it out when it was the coalition doing it, and I'll call you out too, for the next 2½ years—and I won't stop. I've had a gutful of what political donations are doing to this country and its people, because they buy people in parliament. They buy parties and they buy influence—and, obviously, they buy regulations that you can get rid of. It is absolutely disgraceful behaviour, yet you show no shame about it. Jeez! I have to ask you where your conscience is. Fair dinkum!

You know you're not doing this properly, but still you have no shame. For some reason, whenever a major party gets into government it wants to rule the roost. You reckon you own the kingdom. You want to be the king. How about that! You want to own everything in here, or let others own you—take it whichever way you want. You reckon parliament is just a hassle that you don't have to go through, because apparently you can come up with all the answers on your own. It makes me wonder what the rest of us are doing up here, with all the captain's calls that are made. What's the point of the rest of us being here if you want to call the shots and if you don't want to do what you're supposed to do in parliament, which is debate this out?

You know, there are a lot of businesses out there who have just come through COVID and are just getting back on their feet, and they're wondering when the CFMMEU is going to come knocking on their door. That's right; they're ready. They're going to come knocking on their door. There are tradies, builders and contractors who will have to go back to standing up against the bully boys in the CFMMEU all by themselves. But apparently the Labor Party has no shame about that. They're not worried about it. They have no conscience.

Those people should've had a say in this. Their voices should've been heard, and you haven't allowed that to happen. They should've been able to make their case. You should've heard them out because that would've been the dignified thing to do. Instead, Labor is steamrolling our tradies. You're steamrolling them on behalf of the CFMMEU because that's what they paid you to do. There is no need for proper parliamentary process over the CFMMEU. There's no need to do a vote, because they buy them. Apparently the CFMMEU are nothing less than God's angels. They're choir boys. How about that!

With the flick of a pen, you've made huge changes to the construction industry and let them off the hook—they're on the loose—with no care whatsoever for the retributions that are going to come to others, and none of us in here can do anything about it. So much for turning a new leaf in politics! So much for a new government that is going to lead by example! Puh! It just blew out like that. A great day! So much for consulting with the crossbench and doing things differently up here. It's all over red rover.

Labor isn't interested in hearing all sides on this. You don't care what I think about getting rid of the ABCC or what others think about getting rid of the ABCC because, if you did, you would have given us a bill. We all could have had it out to get this right. You should've done the right thing. You could've come to us and asked what we thought and given us the chance to have our say on behalf of our voters. But, oh no, you did don't that.

What really gets on my goat is that I would've worked with you on it. I would've gone back to my voters and asked them what they thought and come up with some solutions, because there are changes that need to be made. Everybody knows the ABCC has overstepped the mark at times. I have no doubt that the coalition wants it for political reasons and that some of its powers go too far. I would have heard that fight out and I would have listened to all sides. We should have been sitting in here fighting it out on the Senate floor; that's how it should have been conducted. Instead, we're going along with political games being played once again. I feel like I've stepped back in time. Labor is playing games and no-one else is invited. What do you know? They're having a party all by themselves. How rude. The back and forth is unbearable, and it brings so much instability.

Every time we have a change of government the rules change for political reasons, for a different set of donors at the parliament's door, because that's how it works up here. That's really unfortunate and it's really unfortunate for the country. By the way, there's a 24-hour news cycle and the rest of the country is catching up on what these political donations are buying. The bottom line is that it makes me really sad to tell both sides in here that you're underselling yourselves and you're being bought off really cheap. That is the sad truth of the matter.

The coalition gives the construction regulator stupid power and stupid laws to get a good headline and embarrass Labor. Now Labor sits in the government seats they hit back and gut the whole ABCC—as if it's all bad and there's nothing going wrong in the industry. Oh, please. Meanwhile, everyone in the industry bounces back and forth between two extremes. I can tell you, the instability in the construction industry is bloody unbearable. We never get to the actual problems that hurt tradies and their bosses. Tradies and their bosses and the industry deserve better than this. Builders and small businesses deserve better than this. That's why I'll be supporting this disallowance motion this evening.

I'll tell you what I am looking forward to: watching the CFMEU run amok. And I imagine it will only be just after Christmas, because, trust me, they're way too big for their boots, and now that you've taken that choker chain off them, they're on the loose. You have completely lost control of the CFMEU, just like that, and that's going to play havoc with our industries right across this country. This is a very proud moment for the Labor party: three months in and this is where we're at. Quite frankly, I look forward to standing up here in the coming months and absolutely berating you for doing what you're doing because by then it's all going to be out in the papers. They are going to be completely out of control, and we'll be going back to before the ABCC was even put in place. I know, and we know, there are things wrong with the ABCC, but by gutting it the way you did you're inviting problems, and they're big problems, and you have no control.

If you want to continue to allow yourselves to be bought off by the CFMEU because of their political donations, because you really won't back yourselves, to win future elections, that makes today a very sad day for this country. To let the construction industry loose is one of the worst things I've seen so far this year, and it is only going to get worse. But, once again, I look forward to coming in here very shortly and berating you for their behaviour, because I know exactly where it's heading. You cannot change the practice of things and the culture of things if you do not change the leadership. And if you think that leadership has been sitting silent, it's because they knew you were coming into power. Now you've allowed them to take complete advantage of you, and you should be ashamed of yourselves. But the menace is there and what they are going to do to this country in the next six to 12 months, God forbid. I look forward to you standing up and explaining yourselves. We all do. Bring it on.

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